Posted by Martin Orr on
Tuesday, 17 October 2006 at 20:29
Two weeks into term, here's a bit of what I'm doing. The courses I'm doing this term are: Analysis II, Linear Algebra, Methods, Quantum Mechanics and Markov Chains. Of these, Methods is probably the most interesting as it is techniques I know nothing about. Linear Algebra is particularly boring; this is not really a good term for pure courses. I am also going to the lectures for one course on General Linguistics, and this week I will be starting classes in Mandarin Chinese as well as continuing my German classes.
On Thursdays I am singing with the Trinity Singers, the non-audition chorus run by Trinity Singers who are doing Handel's Messiah this term, and doing some of the organisation for that. We appointed a Singers Secretary last week, relieving me of much of that. And on Wednesdays I am going to swing dancing classes. This is nice because it is not just a university organisation although there are quite a lot of students who go. This is also one reason why I like Emmanuel United Reform Church (besides being Protestant and non-Established): there are few students there but well-integrated with the rest of the congregation - hard given the temporary nature of students and the ease for a church of catering to them as a distinct group.
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Martin
Tags
emmanuel, languages, lindy, tcms, tripos
Posted by Martin Orr on
Sunday, 08 October 2006 at 16:43
I have finally got some time to rest after a very busy week. First we had two events to recruit new members for TCMS: the Chaplains' Squash on Sunday night (a small, fast event within the college) and the Societies Fair on Tuesday and Wednesday (a huge university-wide event). Finding people to run the stalls was hard; our new Director of Music also decided to hold a party to meet college musicians at the same time, and our committee had to put in a good appearance at that.
Said Director, Stephen Layton, is a fairly significant international conductor, so why he chose to come to Trinity I don't really know. But while his primary responsibility is for the College choir, he seems very enthusiastic about getting all sorts of students involved in playing music. This looks like an exciting future for TCMS, although this term things don't look so good: we don't have a huge number of concerts lined up, and the termcard still isn't finalised (but that is always late). We did manage to appoint directors for the Trinity Singers and Players this week (our non-audition chorus and orchestra), and the Singers have already begun rehearsing Handel's Messiah.
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Martin
Tags
tcms, trinity
Posted by Martin Orr on
Wednesday, 20 September 2006 at 16:51
This is something I have considered before from a mathematical logic perspective, but never really from a theological one. In consideration of the existence of pain in a world created by a loving God, it is often asserted that this is an inevitable consequence of free will (or at least of having multiple agents of free will). However why should it be inevitable? If we assert the omnipotence of God, then we must accept that God is capable of creating a world in which there are multiple agents of free will and no pain.
However that's not really the question I am interested in. This is: Is God bound by our conceptions of logic? In mathematical logic, we make a few basic rules called axioms such as:
If (A and B) is true, then A is true.
Facts are then accepted as true if they can be deduced using these axioms. By starting with different axioms, it is possible to create different systems of logic; for example, some people reject the law of the excluded middle which says:
Either A is true or (not A) is true.
Nevertheless, in trying to proof facts about what makes these logical systems different from each other, we are forced to fall back on our intuitive rules and especially on modus ponens:
If A is true and (If A then B) is true, then B is true.
When I claimed above that believing "Multiple agents of free will implies pain" is a restriction on divine omnipotence, I was creating such a restriction myself by assuming that God was bound by something at least vaguely resembling the logic we are used to.
Does the above: prove that omnipotence is possible; prove that omnipotence is a paradox; contain unsound reasoning; or avoid properly answering the question?
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Martin
Tags
philosophy
Posted by Martin Orr on
Friday, 08 September 2006 at 21:19
What is the use of a signature? The basic function seems to be to confirm the identity of the author of a document - you can't after all attach a photographic ID card. However I am not convinced that they are much good at this: it cannot be terribly difficult, with a little practice, to produce a reasonable copy of someone else's signature. And in order to verify a signature, you would have to compare the doubtful copy with other, genuine, copies of the same signature. However, I know that each time I make my signature it is slightly different, and if people checked too carefully very few signatures would be trustable.
This does not mean that a signature is completely useless - it is still indicates the status you assign to a document. For example, the most recent form I remember signing was to purchase insurance. If I had not signed the form, it would just have been a collection of information; putting my signature there indicates that I have accepted the terms and conditions, and turns it into an instruction to the insurance company to send me a policy. But it is not really any better for such purposes to add a signature than to tick a box labelled "I accept the terms and conditions."
BTW, the photos from my trip to Germany and Italy are online; sorry it took me so long to post the link.
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Martin
Tags
identity
Posted by Martin Orr on
Monday, 14 August 2006 at 11:58
Rome is huge - everything always takes longer to walk than you expect. There are so many things to see that even without that there would have been lots I wanted to see but didn't have time to. Fortunately I did have three full days which was probably the minimum time worth anything. The things to see are also very varied, with lots of ancient ruins as well as many more recent things (indeed most Roman churches seem to be a couple of hundred years newer than those in the north of Italy).
The queue for the Vatican Museums two or three times longer than the one in Florence but it moved much faster and only took 45 minutes. These museums are huge and have lots worth seeing (the most famous being the Sistine Chapel, but I preferred the Raphael Rooms) but they close early on Saturdays and I only got 2.5 hours inside - I could have spent much longer.
Centuries of Christians have quite a lot to answer for in their treatment of their Roman ruins - many have been turned into churches or had statues stuck on top of them. I suppose this does at least preserve the buildings; many other ancient buildings had their stones removed to build things like St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
Now in: Belfast
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Martin
Tags
art, holiday, italy